Time flies. Three months have passed since that night of frankness. Jiang Ling began to show her genius learning ability in all aspects and gradually narrowed the generation gap with modern life.

Imitation was her earliest behavior and the foundation of all learning. Through constant observation and imitation, her behavior around strangers became less unique, and she became accustomed to new things she encountered. Jiang Ling believed that being outdoors was very helpful for imitative learning, so she always took Yu Nuanxin out for runs. In the process, the child's reversed day and night routine had to change, gradually becoming more regular.

At this moment, they are located next to a skyscraper that has been commercialized at Row 214, 7th Street in the Science City District. It is not far from home and is lively enough.

Two people sat facing each other at a roadside tea stall. A transparent film shielded their tea table from top to bottom, blocking out all sounds from inside and outside. Even the passing pedestrians couldn't disturb their peaceful afternoon. The film displayed the stall's menu and some windows showing videos, but overall the space was clean and tidy, free of dazzling light pollution and a sense of clutter. The tea table, with its translucent gradient design, felt a bit like glass, but without its coldness and heaviness. The white legs and seat were adorned with winding patterns, reminiscent of vines wrapped around a tree trunk.

In front of Yu Nuanxin was a cup of hot milk tea that she had taken two sips of. Of course, it was now completely cold. She was now immersed in the online world with her eyes closed, and had no intention of communicating in reality.

Jiang Ling knew that she would not be "awakened" in a short time, so she took the opportunity to take out a bright silver cat-ear headdress from her arms and put it on her head. Then she stuffed a chip the size of her index fingernail into the card reader on the left side of the headdress. Then she took two deep breaths, feeling the warm simulated sunlight from above, sinking her consciousness to the deepest part, and began today's attempt.

This wasn't her first attempt, but in a sense it was.

In previous attempts, perhaps due to her own overpowering consciousness, Jiang Ling appeared in the virtual world created by the external TCM as a massive, radiant sun, powerful enough to incinerate all fragments of memory. Her world of consciousness wasn't as dark as Yu Nuanxin had described. Instead, a canopy of countless points of light perfectly synchronized with reality, while also significantly interfering with the operation of the external TCM. Products developed for ordinary people repeatedly failed to meet her expectations. Her attempts had repeatedly destroyed this relatively inexpensive machine, leaving Yu Nuanxin feeling deeply hopeless.

If the assistance contract had not brought her enough contribution, giving her sufficient capital for trial and error, she would have chosen the last option long ago.

The one on Jiang Ling's head now is the oldest model that Yu Nuanxin can find. It has extremely low memory, extremely weak networking capabilities, and extremely slow reading speed, but at least it has full anti-interference capabilities, just like the vacuum tube computers before transistor computers. In theory, there should be no big problem, but in reality it is hard to say.

"Loading..." The old-fashioned consciousness interconnection device did not have a cool login interface. In the void, only this line of text appeared.

Jiang Ling sincerely hoped the machine would boot up successfully. After all, it was Yu Nuanxin's connection that had cost her a fortune. Two minutes later, she finally got it working, but just as she was about to try to read the chip, her excitement got the better of her, and she instantly destroyed the poor machine.

The crackling sound of electric sparks woke Yu Nuanxin. Looking at the wreckage on the table, she shook her head and said without surprise, "Failed again? What's the problem this time?"

"It reported an error, and then it went dark." Jiang Ling replied.

"The circuit is overloaded?! How did you do that?" Yu Nuanxin asked with a wry smile.

Jiang Ling shrugged and didn't answer.

"Forget it." Yu Nuanxin lifted a corner of the cover and threw the machine into a trash can on the side of the road. "Grandpa, get ready and go to school in a couple of days! I've already made the contact. This way I'll have time to write my research paper." She pointed in a direction. "Look, it's over there. It's not far from here, just a half-hour drive."

Jiang Ling looked in the direction she mentioned - it was an oval building with a pale golden roof that looked very similar to the one in People's Park, reflecting dazzling golden light under the lights in the sky.

"So what school is that?"

Yu Nuanxin smiled and said, "Lihuayuan Ordinary Secondary Full-time School has a 15-year curriculum."

"Can ordinary secondary schools have a 15-year education system?"

"No, it should be said that general middle schools actually have a fifteen-year curriculum." Yu Nuanxin took a sip of milk tea and frowned. "Most people don't go to middle school. After completing primary education, they will get a TCM implant and then go to university or serve in a military academy. Some will return home to inherit the family business. Only a few who are born unable to use it, or who have been banned from TCM due to some problems, are forced to waste their youth in general middle schools. I think the fifteen-year system is still very reasonable. There is a lot to learn on the mothership, and fifteen years is just enough for a person to learn how to survive."